PROVO -- At Brigham Young University, accidentally labeling Mormon leaders "apostates" is no laughing matter.

All 18,500 issues of the Daily Universe were pulled Monday from shelves around campus after it was realized that's exactly what happened. A photo caption on the front page inadvertently described a group of men pictured as members of the "Quorum of the Twelve Apostates," rather than "Apostles," the correct name of a governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The papers were replaced with corrected copies later in the day.

University spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said the typo, which replaced the intended word with a virtual antonym, was an "honest mistake" and that no university or church administrator has sought to punish those responsible for the blunder. She said the problem is being handled internally by newspaper and Department of Communications staff.

"This is extremely rare," Jenkins said. "The focus today has been how and why the error occurred and what we can do to make sure that this does not happen again."

In a written statement, Brad Rawlins, chairman of the school's Communications Department, said the mistake was the product of human error not caught in a regular pre-publication review.

"No disrespect to our church leaders was intended," he said. "The Daily Universe is a student laboratory, and, while this fact does not excuse errors of this magnitude, it does mean that we go through a continuous learning and improvement process in order to enhance the quality of what we do."

According to a BYU Newsnet article posted Monday, the error occurred as a copy editor was conducting an automatic spell check through the page's contents. The editor replaced a misspelled version of the intended word with the computer's first suggestion -- in this case, "apostate."

Jenkins said this is the second time in recent history the paper has been recalled. Years ago, copies were pulled because poor print quality rendered some of the text illegible, she said.

• Ace Stryker can be reached at astryker@heraldextra.com.